Thanks Jay for posting my sighting so promptly. Here are a few more details.
After getting fairly views of the WESTERN GREBE at East Shore Park (thanks
everyone for the RBA posts), I headed around to Stewart Park to do an
additional scan. While pointing out the grebe to two visiting birders (Richard
and Cindy, I think), all the gulls went up in a frenzied flock and then flocks
of noisy geese came across from the golf course area. I immediately thought
eagle and we stepped back from under the willows to see more sky. Cindy
spotted the bird cruising fairly high directly overhead, but when I looked at
it I realized that it was an immature GOLDEN EAGLE -- much more unusual for the
time and place. It appeared as an all-black (i.e. no mottling on underparts or
underwing coverts, very large raptor with striking and distinctive white
patches at the base of the primaries (about 2/3 out on the wing) and a sharply
demarcated white base to the tail. Shape was right for Golden, with
non-wedge-shaped tail slightly shorter than projection of neck and head; wings
were very broad and warped into a slight dihedral with wingtips held closed
and slightly turned up. As it banked in profile (never circled above), I caught
a goldish sheen to the neck and head in the bright sun and could see the yellow
cere on the bill.
The bird continued to cruise toward the southeast, out of sight in the
direction of the High School and Cornell campus.
KEN
Ken Rosenberg
Conservation Science Program
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
607-254-2412
607-342-4594 (cell)
k...@cornell.edu
On Jan 31, 2012, at 10:20 AM, Jay McGowan wrote:
Ken Rosenberg just called to say he just had an immature GOLDEN EAGLE
fly over Stewart Park and head towards campus.
-Jay
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Jay McGowan
Macaulay Library
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
jw...@cornell.edu
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